


Drifting

by Blackdresses13



Series: Strifelumhart Garden [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:54:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27808660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackdresses13/pseuds/Blackdresses13
Summary: He keeps drifting off.He’s still walking because he can feel the rhythm of his movements and the throbbing pain in his leg, but he’s not really paying attention anymore. He looked back about three or four minutes ago, and there was an obvious trail of blood. He should stop moving and call for help.-Leon gets injured on a mission.
Series: Strifelumhart Garden [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1963891
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Drifting

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place when Leon is ~17 years old. TW mild gore and slight reference to past trauma (no trauma details!)

In hindsight, trying to sprint back to base with a bullet wound in his leg was a bad call.

Leon leans against the half-collapsed concrete wall behind him and breathes out through his nose. A slow creeping warmth slides down his leg; glancing down, he can see the blood soaking through the fabric of his SeeD jacket. His head has been throbbing for the past hour, and his ribs are definitely bruised, but it’s his leg that he’s worried about.

_ Shouldn’t have let him hit me in the first place _ , he thinks to himself, glaring up at the overcast, late afternoon sky.

He’s tired.

So he thinks about Zack.

It’s been a few weeks since they’ve talked. The last time Leon heard from Zack, he and his friend Cloud were being deployed for some weird reconnaissance mission outside a backwater town. Leon doesn’t want to admit he misses Zack yet; he doesn’t want that emotional strain, that underlying worry that something terrible could happen. He wants to rise about the possibility of crushing grief and disappointment and misery. He wants to be strong.

_ How strong are you if you’re leaning against a wall instead of getting back to base? _

He makes a fist with his right hand and punches the wall behind him before shifting his weight forward again.

_ Don’t you want to be worth something? _

He starts jogging again, ignoring the shooting pain in his leg and leaving his blood behind.

He’s tired.

He knows he’s closer to the base than he was an hour ago. Forty minutes? Ten? He can’t remember.

He knows his leg started cramping up about three hundred meters back, so he slowed his pace to an awkward fast walk. He also knows his leg isn’t drenched with sweat and that his vision is blurry for reasons beyond exhaustion.

But it’s getting dark.

_ Don’t you want to be worth something? _

So he thinks about Zack.

Leon bought a phone his second year in SeeD, finally able to afford the service fees without limiting himself to a crappy camera-less version. His last letter from Zack had mentioned this ‘cool new app’ called Snapchat where he could send pictures (and later videos) of himself doing random things throughout the day. Three years ago, he bought the phone, downloaded the app, and sent Zack a picture of a random stick figure comic he’d drawn: two figures, one with a speech bubble filling up half the page and the other just standing there silently. Leon put a banner at the bottom, saying, “This was my day.” Zack replied with a picture of himself and this blond kid he’d met from the infantry that year, Cloud Strife.

_ I’ve gotta get back to base _ . 

He keeps drifting off.

He’s still walking because he can feel the rhythm of his movements and the throbbing pain in his leg, but he’s not really paying attention anymore. He looked back about three or four minutes ago, and there was an obvious trail of blood. He should stop moving and call for help. The last time he did a mission, Quistis said he needed to trust his team to have his back. That was four days ago, so there wasn’t much time for improvement.

Suddenly he feels his leg slip as he steps into a shallow hole. He tries to twist out of the fall, but his leg muscles seize around the bullet that’s  _ still embedded in his body _ ; he lets out a small cry as he pitches forward, his chest slamming into the ground and his face colliding with yellowing grass.

It doesn’t hurt so bad anymore. If he’s going to die, maybe it will happen while he’s not paying attention. Perhaps he’ll drift so far into the nothingness beyond reality that death won’t even be able to find him. It’ll be lonely, but at least that nagging voice in the back of his head can’t reach him there.

_ You’re really just going to give up? _

_ Yeah _ , he thinks back,  _ I am _ .

He can tell he’s starting to blip in and out of the world around him. It doesn’t feel like he’s been falling asleep, but it’s almost like he’s trapped in this weird dreamscape. Nothing hurts but at the same time, everything hurts. He knows he’s on the ground in plain sight, but he’s also so far beyond himself. It’s like he’s watching his own misery unfold, but he’s so far away from it. He doesn’t want to watch himself die.

So he thinks about Zack.

Zack said the mission he’s going on with Cloud is just to investigate some old factory, but it will take a few weeks for some reason. He didn’t seem too inclined to care about the details besides the fact that Cloud’s squad was coming with him.

Leon’s talked to Cloud a few times. He’s kind of a nerdy kid and a little bit of a country boy. Every once and a while Cloud says some weird phrase that makes Leon think of Irvine.

“Leon, can you hear me?”

He doesn’t really know why, though, because Irvine kind of talks like a normal person, despite dressing like he grew up on a farm and just recently discovered urban fashion with that trench coat.

“Shit, you’re bleeding?”

_ Am I dreaming? _

“Why didn’t you call for help, idiot?”

_ Why didn’t I...is the sun setting already? _

Everything hurts.

Something’s putting pressure on his leg, and he would kindly like that something to go away. He groans, scrunching up his face as the world starts to materialize again. When did he get on his back?

“Squall, ah shit, Leon, can you hear me? I know you changed your name, buddy, but I keep forgetting.”   
A blurry brown-clad figure is hovering over him, and a piece of cool fabric is touching his face.

“I’m gonna pick you up, alright? Truck’s just down the path. You with me, Leon?”

He squints again, but he can’t get his brain to form sentences.

The figure disappears, and Leon feels something sliding behind his shoulders, and then he’s sitting up, the world spiraling sideways. Amidst everything, the figure forms in front of his face again.

“Up you get, buddy,” Irvine says, moving a hand across Leon’s forehead. He winces, feeling it graze across the gash on his hairline. “You got banged up pretty bad, huh?”

Leon wants to reply. He wants to come up with some deadpan statement, get up, and walk back to base on his own. But the colors are starting to fizzle out again, and his brain has given up on telling him how and why his leg hurts.

The cool fabric touches his face again. “Hey, you with me? I’m gonna stand us both up, alright?”

The world slams back into him when Irvine grips his ribs while lifting him all the way up. His leg caves in, and he’s scared he’s going to fall all over again-

_ Down down down the stairs and he’s all alone and it hurts and he can’t- _

“Yeah, I found him. Can you meet me halfway with the truck?”

_ Everything hurts Zack help please where are you I can’t do this please- _

“Squall, er, Leon, ya know there’s a letter for you at the base. It’s from Zack; that’s your older brother, right?”

_ Zack? _

“Thought you two stopped sending letters years ago, but I guess not.”

_ He’s…here? _

“Sunset looks pretty nice tonight, so that’s a relief. Can you hear me, okay?”

_ You’re… _ “Irvine?”

“That’s me, buddy. Call me next time, okay? Zack would be really pissed at me if I let you die alone in a field, ya know.”   
  


  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Dedicating this to my friends Evie and Abi! ~Thank you Abi for beta reading!


End file.
